Chicago saxophone great Eric Schneider plays the wee hours

Unless you frequent jazz clubs deep into the night, you might not know that one of the city's top saxophonists has been holding down the late-late-late slot at the Green Mill, in Uptown.

But for the past few months, reeds virtuoso Eric Schneider has been leading the Green Mill Quartet jam sessions that start when the rest of the city winds down every Friday night – from 1:30 to 4 a.m. Saturday mornings.

Veteran baritone saxophonist Barry Winograd fronted the band for a couple of decades, but when he took a brief hiatus toward the end of last year, Schneider stepped in for what seemed to be a temporary stint.

"I'm glad that Barry picked him to sub," says Green Mill owner Dave Jemilo, who officially gave the spot to Schneider when Winograd decided to check out, earlier this year.

"I probably would have been afraid to ask him."

What Jemilo means is that Schneider's long and impressive resume – which includes collaborations with Earl Hines, Count Basie and an honor roll of later stars – would not lead anyone to think he'd want to work a wee-hours engagement.

But from the moment Schneider took the spot on a temporary basis, he was enamored of it, he says.

"The story is that I got a call from (bassist) Steve Hashimoto saying that Barry wasn't going to be there, and could I do it that week?" remembers Schneider. "I did, and I had a ball.

"At the end of the night, they said, 'Can you make it next week?' The same thing went on for another month.

"Finally I sent Dave (Jemilo) an e-mail: 'I don't mean to be brusque or anything, but I'm enjoying doing the gig, and I'll do it as long as Barry isn't doing it, but am I going to be a member of the group?'

"That night, he announced: 'The newest official member of the band: Eric Schneider.'"

Not that anyone doubted Schneider's qualifications. In fact, Jemilo wondered whether Schneider would be interested in fronting a fairly loose session in which musicians young and old, talented and not show up to sit in and see if they can hold their own.

"I don't want to say he's overqualified for it, because the guys that are in the band are great," says Jemilo, referring to Hashimoto, pianist Dennis Luxion, drummer Rick Shandling and, of course, Winograd as well.

"So it's hard to say. But it's cool that a guy that's been around the block is fired up about it.

"And it's nice to have a guy that's so well respected that the young kids come in. And, to them, it's not like, 'I'm just sitting in with a jam session – I'm sitting in with these great players.'"

Schneider is the first to acknowledge that not everyone who wanders into the club that late at night is a jazz star on the ascent.

"We get some singers – we get some alleged singers," he quips. "But there was an alto player last week, a young Asian woman fromWashington, D.C., who sounded like she studied with Lee Konitz."

And not long ago no less than octogenarian singer-pianist Freddy Cole –Nat "King" Cole's younger brother – dropped in after his sets at the Jazz Showcase and sang "Polka Dots and Moonbeams."

But who shows up at that hour to hear music, anyway?

"The audience is all over the place," says Schneider. "Sometimes it's people who've heard about the Mill and want to check it out and are respectful and fairly quiet. You get some people who come in because the other bars are closed, and you could have anything on stage and they'd be unaware.

"Some musicians come in with their tuxes (after their own sets) just to hang, maybe even to play. A guy and a girl might be out on a date and come into the Mill toward the end of their night.

"Sometimes you have five drummers who want to sit in, and sometimes none."

Either way, it's a classic scene, with top-flight Chicago musicians working the city's most atmospheric jazz club and welcoming all comers.

For Schneider, the engagement points to a quickening of his schedule, the man also playing the Monday-night shows of the Chicago Jazz Orchestra at Andy's Jazz Club, plenty of corporate dates and even periodic work in the Chicago Cubs Dixieland Band at Wrigley Field.

"It's like the old days all of a sudden," says Schneider, who says he holds a special reverence for the late-night Green Mill shows.

"Sometimes during the week I play crappy gigs," he adds. "And all of a sudden, Friday night at 1:30, I'm playing songs with a rhythm section, and I'm thinking, 'Yeah, this is what I'm meant to do, this is what I do best, and I'm so happy to be able to do it.'

"I kind of giggle inside."

He could be giggling for years to come.

Also worth hearing

Paul Marinaro: He owns one of the most plush baritones in Chicago – or just about anywhere else – and one of these days, perhaps the rest of the world will realize it. 6:30 p.m. Friday at Katerina's, 1920 W. Irving Park Rd.; no cover; 773-348-7592 or katerinas.com

Howard Levy: One of the world's leading harmonica virtuosos, as well as a top-notch pianist, Levy alights briefly here at home amid his continuous world travels with Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, among other groups. This time, Levy will lead a band he calls Acoustic Express. 9 p.m. Friday and 8 p.m. Saturday at the Green Mill Jazz Club, 4802 N. Broadway; $12; 773-878-5552 or greenmilljazz.com